State Director of Safety AriZavaras, right, talks with aColorado state trooper outsidethe Capitol on Mondayafternoon. Gov. Bill Rittersaid that a review of Capitolsecurity would begin almostimmediately.

Police tape cordons off the Capitol on Monday after the shooting. Colorado is among 30 states that don’t routinely use metal detectors at their capitols, said KaeWarnock, a policy specialist with the National Conference of State Legislatures. Even after Monday’s events, many legislators still feel strongly that metal detectorsand other extreme forms of security prevent citizens from being able to freely participate in the state’s government.

Members of the Denver coroner’soffice remove the body ofthe man shot outside Gov. BillRitter’s office Monday. The governor’soffice is protected bystate troopers, but the Capitol entrancesare not guarded, andthere are no metal detectors.

In 2002, people complained about having to enter Colorado’s Capitol through metal detectors installed after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, saying the machines limited access to state government.

So legislators removed the extra layer of security.

That move was instantly called into question Monday after a gunman made his way toward the office of Gov. Bill Ritter before he was shot and killed by a state trooper.

Former state Rep. Dan Grossman, D-Denver, voted to keep the detectors in place in 2002.

“I would say it would be very difficult to criticize people who made those decisions,” he said “Though, in hindsight, it looks like they (the decisions) were poor.”

But while Ritter said security at the Capitol will now be reviewed, some of those involved in the 2002 decision cautioned against leaping to judgments about the removal of the metal detectors.

Former House Speaker Doug Dean, R-Colorado Springs, who voted to do away with the detectors in July of that year, defended the decision.

“You want the public to have access,” he said. “You don’t want them to feel that they are going into a fortress.”

State officials are now talking about reviewing security, which may include reinstalling the detectors.

They are now used only for major events, such as the governor’s State of the State address.

Colorado is among 30 states that don’t use metal detectors at their capitols, said Kae Warnock, a policy specialist with the National Conference of State Legislatures.

Like Colorado, she said, many states raised their guard after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

Then, just as quickly, some relaxed.

“State capitols are referred to as the ‘People’s House,”‘ Warnock said.

Many legislators feel strongly that the building should be open for anyone who wants to walk off the street and participate.

“They want to make sure the people are always part of the process,” Warnock said.

Even though other government buildings – from courthouses to city halls – have higher security, state capitols remain almost free of it, she said.

Responsibility to protect

Capitol Building Advisory Committee Chairman Hugh Fowler, a former lawmaker, said he believes opening a government building to the public carries with it some responsibility.

“We have thousands of school kids and thousands of tourists in the building, and they must be protected,” Fowler said. “If we invite people in to see our beautiful building, we have a responsibility to protect them.”

In Colorado, the decision to remove the metal detectors was made by a 3-2 vote of a joint legislative committee that met less than nine months after the attacks.

The committee met a few days after State Patrol Capt. Ron Woods, who was then head of Capitol security, told another group of legislators that they could remove the machines.

Tightened surveillance, fewer visitors to the Capitol and enough troopers posted at various parts of the building would maintain security, he said at the time.

Other attacks happened with detectors in place.

Warnock pointed to a shooting at the U.S. Capitol in 1998 in which a gunman killed two police officers before he even passed through its metal detectors.

A similar incident in 2004 at the Illinois Capitol prompted that state to install metal detectors.

Now Illinois, along with states such as Utah, Florida and California, is one of 20 that have the detectors full time, Warnock said.

Grossman said that public service is sometimes dangerous, and security is important.

“It’s scary, you know,” he said. “I think people tend to forget the negative sides of public service, and one of them is you open yourself up not only to criticism, but also to threats.”

Some notable shootings at public buildings

2004

Police in Springfield, Ill., briefly detained 24-year-old Derek W. Potts 40 minutes after he allegedly killed an unarmed state Capitol guard, but let him go because his appearance did not match initial descriptions of the shooter. That enabled Potts to wander around the city for another 17 hours before being caught again. A day after the shooting, Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich signed an executive order mandating the installation of metal detectors in the Capitol and several surrounding buildings.

2001

At the White House, Secret Service officers shot and wounded Robert W. Pickett, 47, who had fired a handgun outside the south fence. President Bush, who was inside at the time, was never in danger. Pickett was a tax accountant who lived alone in Evansville, Ind., with no known police record.

1998

Russell E. Weston, 42, of Helena, Mont., burst through a security checkpoint in the U.S. Capitol and killed two Capitol police officers in an exchange of fire that sent panicked bystanders diving for cover. One tourist, Angela Dickerson, 24, also was hit. The wounded gunman was captured in the office complex of then-House Majority Whip Tom DeLay, R-Texas. The shootings were the first in the Capitol in 44 years, and the worst since Congress convened in the building in 1800. The two slain officers were Jacob Chestnut and John Gibson, both 18-year veterans.

1994

In October, a young Widefield, Colo., hotel worker, Francisco Duran, pulled out a semiautomatic rifle from beneath his trench coat and fired several shots at the front of the White House from the sidewalk along Pennsylvania Avenue. Testimony at his trial showed he was motivated by intense hatred of the federal government and had notes in his possession reading, “Kill the Prez.” Duran was sentenced to 40 years in prison for attempted assassination of President Clinton.

1987

R. Budd Dwyer, 47, the Pennsylvania state treasurer, publicly committed suicide at a news conference after proclaiming he had been wrongly convicted of bribery. He had been charged in connection with a $4.6 million contract awarded without bidding to a small computer concern. He faced up to 55 years in prison. At his news conference, his resignation was expected. Instead, he protested his innocence, criticized the prosecution, put a .357 Magnum in his mouth and pulled the trigger.

1986

Attorney Jeanne Elliott was shot four times at point- blank range during a court hearing in Arapahoe County District Court by an Aurora police officer who was angry about an increase in his court-ordered child-support payments. Elliott, who was representing the ex-wife of Gerald Utesch, survived but was paralyzed. Utesch was prosecuted by Bill Ritter and sentenced to 32 years in prison but has since been released.

1978

Unhappy former police officer Dan White climbed through a City Hall window and executed San Francisco Mayor George Moscone and newly elected Supervisor Harvey Milk, the country’s first openly gay elected official.

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